The following abbreviations are utilized herein:
3GPPthird generation partnership projectBWbandwidthDCIdownlink control informationDLdownlink (Node B to UE)E-UTRANevolved universal terrestrial radio access network (LTE)LTElong term evolution of UTRAN (E-UTRAN)Node Bbase stationPDCCHphysical downlink control channelPRBphysical resource blockRBresource blockRBGresource block groupUEuser equipment, such as a mobile station or mobile terminalULuplink (UE to Node B)UTRANuniversal terrestrial radio access network
In LTE (E-UTRAN), DL resource allocation is signaled on the PDCCH. The resource allocation signaling bits indicate which physical resources (e.g., PRBs) are allocated for a given user (e.g., UE). One of the issues with the resource allocation signaling is that full resolution (e.g., 50 bits to indicate which of the 50 PRBs are allocated for the 10 MHz system bandwidth case) is needed for full flexibility, which in turn may require a lot of signaling bits. Thus, there have been discussions in 3GPP on how to reduce this amount of signaling without losing too much scheduling flexibility.